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← All work Case 05 — Strategy & Product

Positioning a category-defining org.

For Grow Rwanda, we shaped the positioning, built the brand and the public-facing platform, and helped articulate the work to funders, ministries, and the producers themselves — in language that respected all three audiences.

Client
Grow Rwanda
Sector
Agriculture · Impact
Scope
Strategy & product
Year
2023–2025
Services
Strategy · Positioning · Brand · Web platform
Stock photograph of open farmland (not client photography)
The opportunity

A category that didn’t have a clean word for itself.

Grow Rwanda sits at the intersection of agricultural intelligence, smallholder economics, and policy infrastructure. None of those words sing on a landing page, and none of them describe what the team actually does on a Tuesday.

The org was raising the next round, opening conversations with new ministries, and trying to recruit operators who had options. Every audience needed a different version of the truth. None of them was being told it well.

The brief: a positioning, a brand, and a public platform that can speak to a funder, a ministry, and a producer cooperative in the same week — without sounding like three different orgs.

What we recommended

One truth, three doors.

  1. Decision 01

    Write one position, then open it to each audience.

    A funder, a ministry, and a producer cooperative each get their own version of the same truth — so the org never sounds like three different orgs.

  2. Decision 02

    Start in-country, not in a war room.

    Leadership in Kigali, the field operations team, cooperative leads. The positioning was built in their rooms, not on a whiteboard.

  3. Decision 03

    Lock the position, then build brand and platform in parallel.

    Three milestones — positioning lock, system reveal, platform launch — each signed off in a working session, not an emailed PDF.

What we shipped

A platform built to carry the position.

01

Positioning & narrative

The one-paragraph version, the funder version, the ministry version, and the producer version. Same truth, three doors.

02

Identity system

Wordmark, secondary marks, palette, and a typographic system tuned to read in three languages and on print, mobile, and field-grade paper.

03

Public-facing platform

The flagship site — a Next.js + Sanity build with editorial templates, sector pages, an impact dashboard, and a careers funnel.

04

Investor & ministry collateral

A repeatable system for the org’s most-used decks. Same source data, three layouts, one design language.

05

Internal articulation

Workshops with the leadership team. Every operator can now say the company in one sentence the same way.

06

Photographic system

A field-led photography library and treatment guidelines. The brand looks like the country, not like a stock-photo NGO.

How we worked

In-country first. Then on the page.

We started where the work happens. Time with the leadership in Kigali, time with the field operations team, time with cooperative leads. The positioning came out of those rooms, not out of a war-room whiteboard.

Brand and platform were built in parallel and shipped in three milestones — positioning lock, system reveal, platform launch — each one signed off in a working session with the leadership team rather than an emailed PDF.

The org now leads conversations with the language we shaped together. The platform is the proof. The decks are the wedge.

Audiences Three, one voice
Build Next.js + Sanity
Ownership In-country
Outcomes

What the org leads with now.

Audiences

3 audiences, one voice

Funders, ministries, and producers hear the same truth, each in a version written for them.

Platform

Platform launched

The flagship site on Next.js + Sanity: editorial templates, sector pages, an impact dashboard, and a careers funnel.

Language

One sentence, said the same way

Every operator can now say the company in one sentence. The org leads conversations with the language we shaped together.

Selected outputs

A brand that looks like the place it comes from.

POSITIONINGONE TRUTHONE-PARAGRAPHVERSIONFUNDERMINISTRYPRODUCERSAME TRUTH, THREE DOORSFUNDERS · MINISTRIES · PRODUCERS
Positioning & narrativeIllustration
WORDMARKMARKSTYPEAa3 LANGUAGESPALETTEREADS ONPRINTMOBILEFIELD-GRADE PAPER
Identity systemIllustration
EDITORIALIMPACT DASHBOARDSECTOR PAGESCAREERS
Public-facing platformIllustration
The hardest part was naming what we already were. Once that was done the rest moved fast — and the org started moving with it.
Executive director — Grow Rwanda

Skip the slides. Have the conversation.

A 30-minute conversation. No deck. We map your positioning, brand, and platform together and tell you honestly where to start.